Putting the Garden to Bed #2

GroCover from Veggie Care 

The GrowCover from Veggie Care is finally in place and it looks like this weekend will be a good test as temperatures are predicted to be in the mid-30s for highs and in the mid-20s for lows.

The GrowCover fabric is imported from Italy and sold by Veggie Care owned by John & Kate Walters in Australia.  Because overseas shipping costs can be expensive, John & Kate are hoping to have a United States distributorship in the spring.

"GrowCover and GrowCover HD are knitted from thin, but amazingly strong, high density UV stabilized polyethylene thread (see picture below). Despite it's light weight it is extremely strong and with normal use will protect your plants for many years.  The manufacturers claim up to eight years.  VeggieCare has experience of using GrowCover for 5 years, and it is still as good as new." from www.veggiecare.com

Close up of GroCover

"Summary of benefits
GrowCover and GrowCover HD will:

• promote healthy natural growth in your plants and seedlings;
• allow ventilation and rain penetration;
• allow through 86% (GrowCover) or 81% (GrowCover HD) of sunlight;
• help retain moisture in the soil and warm the soil in spring for early sowing;
• protect from frost down to 25 degrees F;
• help reduce insect attack;
• protect plants from strong winds, heavy rain and hail;
• protect from pets and young children;
• be easy to handle as it is light and strong and will last many years; it is UV resistant;
• be able to grow vegetables without using pesticides making your family's vegetables healthier to eat;
• help reduce food miles and benefit the environment."  from www.veggiecare.com

As I said in my blog post last Wednesday, we have covered one of our square foot gardening boxes with DIO-Betalon and the second one with GrowCover.  We will be testing them regarding protection from from wind and frost both now and in the early spring.  Though we have had some pretty high winds that last few days, both covers are intact and providing protection to the veggies planted in the square foot gardening boxes. We will also be interested to see how the two products perform in the summer as shade protection.  I will keep you posted periodically on the performance of both products.

www.veggiecare.com

www.squarefootgardening.com